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Rob and Ryan aim to get Wrexham into the Premier League | A look at the docuseries

Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds aim to get Wrexham into the Premier League ahead of a look at the new documentary series on their takeover.

As we are well aware of by now, the Hollywood duo took over the club in February 2021, but fast forward to today they have been speaking with the media about the docuseries ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ on FX surrounding how their interest arose.

In the first episode, titled ‘Dream’, showed both of them on the pitch at Racecourse Ground after buying the National League side.

The second episode titled ‘Reality’ sees the club barely miss the playoffs followed by the quick dismissal of manager Dean Keates and his staff along with 11 players.

Ryan and Rob in the first episode were enthralled when they saw the Racecourse Ground for the first time, taking in their surroundings.

Club owners: Ryan Reynolds and Rob Rob McElhenney took over the Wrexham Association Football club in Wales during the season premiere on Wednesday of the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham on FX

‘I don’t think the goosebumps are ’cause it’s cold,’ Ryan said.

‘I’m just thinking about how many thousands of people have come to watch these games over the last 150 years. Pretty incredible,’ Rob said.

Rob said there was real risk for them with their investment.

‘And there is a version of the story…where we are the villains,’ Rob said.

They both considered the worst case scenario of failing and having to sell the team.

‘F*** that,’ Ryan said.

‘F*** that,’ Rob echoed.

‘It’s gonna work,’ Ryan said.

London native: The premiere episode also introduced London native Humphrey Ker, 39, who has worked with Rob and introduced him to the game

The opening episode also saw London native Humphrey Ker, 39, who has worked with Rob and introduced him to the game.

‘My mind was racing when I learned about the English system. The idea that you can get promoted into a league above you and demoted and kicked out of the league is incredible,’ Rob said in a confessional.

Humphrey explains to viewers the English professional football system and its pyramid of four tiers with the Premier League at the top as well as the relegation system. After all, this doc was heavily advertised in the US too.

He says Wrexham for the past 14 season have been playing in the National League, which is the top level of non league football in England.

English system: Humphrey with the help of some graphics explained the English professional football system with its pyramid of four tiers and the Premier League at the top and its relegation system
Big money: The English Premiere League average salary for 2021 was $4.36 million
Much lower: National League players make substantially less than their higher league counterparts

Rob says he spoke with Humphrey about buying a team in the lowest league and bringing them to the top.

‘But as I started to gather more and more information, I realized how expensive it was going to be. I have TV money, but as I started to look at how expensive it actually was to run a club, I realized that I needed something more than TV money. I needed… Movie-star money,’ Rob said.

A clip then shows Ryan from his 2002 film National Lampoon’s Van Wilder saying, ‘Sometimes you got to let your heart lead you, even if you know it’s someplace you know you’re not supposed to be.’

Rob expresses how he needs superhero movie star money followed by a clip of Ryan in Deadpool.

He teases Ryan saying they would need ‘alcohol-baron money’, referring to his Aviation American Gin brand and a number of mobile phone services money referencing Ryan’s investment in Mint Mobile.

‘What other companies does this b**** have?,’ Rob replied.

Ryan in a confessional talked about his late father James who he said ‘struggled in a number of different ways.’

‘My dad started as a cop, then became a food broker, which sounds like a cover for a CIA agent or something, but that was his actual job. The main place I got validation from my father, like, if I was good at sports, in my father’s eyes, I was doing all right. So I played sports long past the point where I was, like, really driven to play sports,’ Ryan said.

Ryan said the ‘unquenchable thirst for validation’ hasn’t gone away and acknowledged that his description made him seem like a ‘really hard-ass.’

‘He would have thought all of this was wild. Like, you know, he didn’t really see any of the stuff “Deadpool” forward, so I think he would have thought this was all pretty crazy,’ Ryan said.

Played sports: My dad started as a cop, then became a food broker, which sounds like a cover for a CIA agent or something, but that was his actual job. The main place I got validation from my father, like, if I was good at sports, in my father's eyes, I was doing all right. So I played sports long past the point where I was, like, really driven to play sports,' Ryan said

Episode number two, ‘Dream’ featured Ryan and Rob trying to win the support of the Wrexham Supporters Trust to buy the club.

They had to get at least 75 percent of the vote to acquire the club and gained 98 percent approval on the three resolutions giving them control.

Supporters gathered outside including one male in a homemade Deadpool costume as fireworks were set off.

The second episode saw Shaun Harvey, the controversial former chief executive of the EFL stepping in to help Ryan and Rob until they hired a CEO.

He told a reporter that they would support the current manager and players to give them every incentive in order to get the club promoted to a higher league.

Viewers were also introduced to midfielder Paul Rutherford who played football with his two boys and revealed that he and his wife were expecting another boy in June.

Shaun is heard saying that after the takeover it was decided that if the team had a realistic chance of making the playoffs there would be no change of manager.

‘But if we do not get to the playoffs, Dean Keates was going to have to be relieved of his duties,’ Shaun added.

Wrexham player: Viewers also met midfielder Paul, 33, who played soccer with his two boys and revealed that he and his wife were expecting another boy in June

The episode then showed the final match of the season between Wrexham and Dagenham & Redbridge with the playoffs on the line.

Rob woke up around 4:20 am to watch the game with his 10-year-old son Axel, it was 0-0 at half time, the manager put Paul on for the second half, was red carded and the side were down to 10-men.

Dagenham scored, Wrexham responded with a late goal, but couldn’t get a winner and missed out the playoffs.

Paul cursed in the locker room after being ejected and shouted ‘F*** off!’

Ryan after losing the game told Rob over the phone that they had to rebuild.

Clearly frustrated: Paul cursed in the locker room after being ejected and shouted 'F*** off!' in a clear sign of frustration
Let go: An update showed that Dean and his staff were fired on May 30, 2021

An update was given, Dean and his staff were fired on the 30th of May 2021, Paul Rutherford was released the next day with 10 of his teammates.

‘Our goal is to get the fuck out of this league. Like, that’s it. If you don’t get promoted… That’s our fault,’ Ryan said in a confessional.

Ryan adds it was ‘really challenging’ to let players go.

‘When you’re in the fifth tier, it’s a lot of these players are playing for their lives. They don’t have these Premier League contracts that they can, you know, fall back on and go, “Oh, it’s, you know, could retire tomorrow”,’ Ryan said.

With the docuseries released, the Hollywood duo are speaking with various media outlets promoting the show.

“We have a short and a long-term strategy,” McElhenney said.

“The short term is to get out of this league and into the next, then each year we look at what the finances are.

“We recognise that Ryan and I can handle those for the next few leagues but once you start getting up to League One and the Championship you’re not building a team that can compete in the Premier League, and obviously that’s a completely different game.

“We have a plan in place for when that occurs but we recognise that’s five-six years off.

“It’s not that we would sell the club to someone else, it’s that we would have to look for some amount of outside capital.

“We don’t have any specific plans in place, we just recognise when you’re competing with the kind of money that is in Premier League and even Championship football, it’s essentially untenable for individuals.

“As individuals in the entertainment business we might be rather successful, but that’s going to be difficult to support year after year after year with the kind of money that’s in that league.”

Wrexham missed out on promotion to the EFL last season, finishing second to champions Stockport County in the National League – which has only one automatic promotion place – before a play-off semi-final defeat against Grimsby.

The Dragons have had a stop-start opening to this campaign, including a 2-0 defeat midweek to promotion rivals Chesterfield, but hit top gear on Saturday – with McElhenney in attendance at the Racecourse Ground – as they beat Maidstone United 5-0.

That saw Wrexham climb to fifth, three points behind early leaders Barnet, and get the promotion plan back on track to escape from the division they have been mired in since being relegated from the Football League in 2008.

“I thought, if you had a team that was in a low division but has the infrastructure because they’ve had success in the past, to move up those leagues over the course of four to five to six years, couldn’t you theoretically take a team from the lowest league and bring them up to the top?” McElhenney told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“A lot of people laughed, but a few people didn’t and Ryan was one of those people. So I brought the idea to Ryan and said we should try to do this, see if we could find a club and try to advance them.

“At the beginning we thought let’s see how long we can last and try and improve this club year after year after year, and then we’ll see.

“Now in the last year and a half we’ve realised we’re in this for the rest of our lives.”

McElhenney is keen to stress that Wrexham should be the ongoing focus, with himself and Reynolds as “the stewards”.

“That’s the thing that we talk about the most: how do we make sure we don’t come into the situation as outsiders and pull them into our story?” McElhenney said.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure that at every turn the community is involved in every decision we make and that it is at the heart of every decision that we make.

“Because it would be an abject failure if we came in and made the whole story about us and us as owners of the club, and not really delve into what it is to be a supporter, a member of the Wrexham community who have followed this club through thick and thin for 150 years.

“We just recognise that we’re the stewards of this club, we don’t even consider us as the owners. We recognise that our time is limited and we just want to make sure we’re doing the best by the community and the club and make sure it’s around for another 150 years.”

After being asked by a Sky Sports reporter if they still have ambitions to get the club to the Premier League after a tough few seasons failing to win promotion, Rob said: “Why not, if we go into this and we wanna dream big, then why not go all the way?! I think we have recognised that is a long journey. We’re here for the long haul.”

Ryan added: “You can put together the greatest team of earth and you can see some giantkiller come and takes out Man Utd, anything can happen in this sport, so why couldn’t Wrexham theoretically make the Premier League oe day, this is the place to where hopes and dreams are made of.

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